Been A While Fabed New Bumpers

Them are bumpers youbetcha!

Nice! Are you sure you don't want to take a few minutes with the grinder to round the edges and the corners on the end just a little? I had similar iron on an old Scout and I was always gouging myself on them. Hurts anytime, but I was in Wisconsin at the time; An "ouch" at 80 degrees becomes a muleskinner's stream at 20 below :-)

Nice work on the welds and finish.

The fab work looks great.

But, you might consider capping the ends at least. Cleaning crud out of the tubes could turn into a pain in the rump. I know my factory front is a nuisance after wheelin.

If they were mine I'd snub them off just past the outer edge of the driving lights and give them a little angle up on the ends to make them pretty. That way you'll have good clearance for approach and prolly lose a few pounds of weight on them too.

What kind of finish are you going to put on them?

Everybody has "a better way to do it" ;-) Caps mean that you have to seal the whole thing or you get water trapped inside to rust. Drain holes just mean that any gunk that gets in will stay and you can't clean it out. What does your resident mechanic have to say?

I'm curious about the finish as well. My 21 year old bumpers are beginning to need refinishing and I can't decide on the best approach - paint, plate, or powder coat.

I did give they a slight bevel to take the edge off, got nicked when I dry fitted before painting.

I left the tubes open for tow starps and my high lift jackr and I hace a strap the goes over the ends to keep everything in place . I primed them with an industrial primer that is actually made for underwater use. The finished coat is Rustoleum Hammered Black 3 coats the stuff is really tough and hard. To coat the inside I covered the ends with tape and poured in the primer, taped the remaining end and rocked the bumper. Did the same with the finished coat too. I left the bumpers long to push down the brush so the tires can roll over it and the bumpers long protect the fenders from getting beat.

Yes sealing the ends will cause them to rus like a big dog from the inside out. There is a fix which I used when fabricatinf lattice boom cranes. After everything is sealed yo weld in a 3 quarter inch pipe fitting. Remove the plug pour in a liquid caled flowcoat about 6 ozs fill with a quart of water, turn a few times and drain reinstall the plug. It will never rust and I mean never.

The rustoleum hammered paint is great stuff and will hold up well. I painted my dodge ram wheels 7 years ago and they have held up well and look good. Best of all even with a good grade brush it looks like it was sparayed. Keep away from the shaker can version it is just too thin.

Yes if you are going to do something do more than what you may want because some day the wants become needs.

I did such a good job one of my buds wants a set instead of tow hooks he wants clevis with pins easy enough.

I finished my home brew bumpers in Rustoleum semi-gloss black rattle can about 9 or 10 years back. Extremely pleased. I use them to mow down the alder brush that chokes the trails, it has held up better than the Chinese powder coat on the tow hooks.

I'll second Rustoleum. Used it on my old truck. Best part is if something nasty scratches it, wipe, pffffffft, fixed. :) Can't do that with powdercoat.

I like the suggestion! Simple, cheap, just my kind of fix.

The old MJ is in need of lots of cosmetic work - even the Herculiner in the bed needs some TLC - but it's still running well enough to get me to South Texas and back last week (3100 miles @ 22 mpg) so I guess it deserves the effort.

"Will Honea" Everybody has "a better way to do it" ;-) Caps mean that you have to seal the whole thing or you get water trapped inside to rust. Drain holes just mean that any gunk that gets in will stay and you can't clean it out. What does your resident mechanic have to say?

"Coasty" wrote

I left the tubes open for tow starps and my high lift jackr and I hace a strap the goes over the ends to keep everything in place . I primed them with an industrial primer that is actually made for underwater use. The finished coat is Rustoleum Hammered Black 3 coats the stuff is really tough and hard. To coat the inside I covered the ends with tape and poured in the primer, taped the remaining end and rocked the bumper. Did the same with the finished coat too. I left the bumpers long to push down the brush so the tires can roll over it and the bumpers long protect the fenders from getting beat.

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Ahhh... ok, I understand now :-)

K.

One thing I noticed when looking at the pictures....

Why are there no recovery points?

K.

BAD idea. You want easily-replaced, sacrificial bumpers that absorb energy and prevent frame damage in a collision. Instead you will have nice intact bumpers and a bent frame that you can't replace.

The front bumper has a winch and tow hooks, the rear has a class IV hitch with a 2 inch ball and a clevis hitch plenty of recovery points.